blogger

There are days when I wonder: why blog?

It opens you up to criticism and opinion and a whole new world of insecurity.

Sometimes it feels a bit like a club I'll never quite be part of. The "big" blogs, the ones with big public profiles and thousands of readers, are, for me, at the same time inspiring and intimidating. Some days I just can't believe how productive these women are. How perfect their photos.

When I come home from a day of work and just manage to get dinner on the table, the kids bathed and storied and songed and bedded and I'm hanging out the washing at 9pm, I look up some of my favourite blogs and they are full of the fabulous knitting and sewing projects people finished in one day, the perfectly arranged (and clean) corners of a perfectly gorgeous house, the fabulous food shots, photographed perfectly in natural daylight. Young children photographed playing happily with organic wooden toys or out in the woods and multiple older children all being successfully homeschooled, and I admit, it can inspire and depress me in equal parts.

But today.

I was walking through the supermarket, trailing Henry, consequently carrying three things I did not go into the supermarket to buy, and I bumped into a lovely friend of mine, also shopping.

She was holding a recipe and buying the ingredients – and it was my recipe.

She'd seen it here and decided to make it.

And THAT's why I blog.

I hope I never irritate you.

I hope you never look me up here and feel in any way inadequate.

My house is rarely clean and my children watch TV while I'm cooking dinner.

I struggle to finish any project (you may have noticed) and set myself too many, all the time. (See side list.)

But the fact that one person might look up a recipe here and go make it, makes it completely worthwhile. My food itself is lowly and unsophisticated and my food photography is usually rushed and there's certainly never any whiteboards used to reflect light or anything fancy.

But I do really care about what you're eating and the trouble you're having getting your three year old to eat vegetables and your one year old to eat anything but fruit. I really GET the whole question of whether you cook one meal or two (kids + adults) and how to encourage kids who won't eat breakfast/bread/beans to eat something.

I love making stuff when I get around to it, and I love talking about my family and asking for feedback on things like classic movies (thanks so much for the lists of films! We're going to be all set!)

Thanks thanks thanks for tuning in.

I'm so glad you're here.

xxx

21 Comments on “blogger”

I actually prefer reading Inner Pickle than I do the blogs with a perfect house, perfect children, etc. You keep it real, and I love that. I don’t have children, but your stories and thoughts about yours are so heartwarming, gentle and filled with love, it makes me think it might not be such a bad idea after all 🙂

And that risotto tip of yours has Changed.My.Life 😀

There is something very welcoming and soulful about what you’ve created here Fiona – it’s honest, it’s unpretentious, it’s interesting, and it’s fun to read! Even though I probably wouldn’t recognise you if I passed you in the street(!), you feel like a friend because of this very generous window you’ve given into your world.

I can’t remember how I found Inner Pickle but I’m glad I did. Don’t underestimate how lovely your blog is, and how much people enjoy reading it. You certainly never bore me. Please don’t change 🙂 x

Fantastic post, and it needed to be said by someone, and I’m so glad it was you! I really enjoy your blog as you know:)

And I hope you don’t mind, but I’ve written a response blog post to this one on my blog. As you know, I had a topic the other day, ‘Slow down’, so of course your post today is like a breath of fresh air. I don’t think it’ll hurt most of us bloggers to just lighten up! I don’t mean that in a nasty way, more just in a way that we shouldn’t be nearly as hard on ourselves as we are.

I too, check your blog every day to see what gorgeousness you have blossoming in your life. See my response to your ‘housekeeping’ post.

I so want to reiterate that we (your viewers/readers) love everything about you: The unglamourous sounding ‘stewie spuds’ to the very silky custard. The photos of the wee’d on teddies hanging on the line, the lovely photos of Henry in his uniform, your beautiful op-shop dress, a paint-covered Tilly, your STUNNING sister-in-law, Betsy, and the very few (but don’t we all want more) photos of you and Ad.

Please don’t add whiteboards for light, or stop taking photos when you go ‘glamping’! Please DO take photos when you make popcorn so we can see the kids laughing, and PLEASE take more of you and Ad!

AND I also have printed many recipes and taken them with me to the supermarket! AND, when I post a link to InnerPickle on my facebook, I get great comments, and other people repost to their facebook. What a brilliant compliment!

Well done you, and we think you’re doing a great job: blogger, mum, wife, one-woman VCFS champion, daughter, sister, sister-in-law, and cousin-in-law!!! Keep up the great work xxxx

yvette

March 4, 2010 at 10:16 am

Hi everyone –
that was me that Fi bumped into at the supermarket- and it was the choc chip cookie recipe that i was buying for.
i have only just gotten back into baking after a long stretch of simply not bothering, and i am really enjoying it.
the choc chip cookies turned out rather well- i used half a cup of rolled oats instead of the oatbran and it really worked.
i thought i’d try with some dried fruit next time like sultanas and apricots.

i was saying to Fi recently that i love her recipes and blog etc . i rather got the impression that she thought i was just being polite to be nice.
so i was glad to bump into her with recipe in hand!

SB

I, for one, don’t buy it… not for a minute! The thing about blogs is that you only need post the bits of your life you want someone to see. These “picture perfect” bloggers are not perfect- they just forgot to mention the cheese sauce stuck onto the lounge (instead they blogged about decluttering) or the almighty tantrum their 7 year old threw at the supermarket (instead they mentioned the amazing lamp they found somewhere).

Distraction my friend, the art of the magician, to make something seemingly disappear because you are looking elsewhere.

That’s why we love this blog, we get to see the bad days, the tantrums, the I’m-never-eating-peas dinners etc. Blog the bad bits, they are what makes it real!

Oh Fi. Well said. I am constantly concerned about how I am perceived by the bit of myself I show on my blog. I know the satisfaction you get when someone says they have tried your recipe. I know it and love it. It’s the few people who give a complimentary comment or try a recipe that makes it worthwhile. You are so right. You know I love your blog and hope it never changes.
x

Sal

Melissa Linardon

March 4, 2010 at 7:33 pm

Innerpickle is something i look forward to everyday. I too have printed out the recipes and taken them in hand to the supermarket. Feel free to run into me anytime at Engadine Woolies. Life isn’t perfect. Working mothers and fathers do what they can with what they have. No more no less. This blog is you. Don’t ever change it. After nearly 25 years of knowing you, i know you don’t care if you have 10 subscribers or 100. long live innerpickle. xxxx

I made the self-saucing pudding on the weekend and it was awesome. AWESOME! I also use your chocolate cake, tuna quesadilla and broccoli soups recipes regularly, plus I’ve tried the lemon poppyseed cakes and crumpets (but I don’t have egg rings so they were okay but not wonderful). Of course, you’re unlikely to run into me at the supermarket but still, I’m a rather large fan (I mean that in the fan-sense not in the bodily sense). So quit your whining and continue being fabulous. As you were.

Sue

Sue

March 6, 2010 at 3:46 am

And as much as I aspire to be a little more wonderful and productive than comes naturally, it’s your sense of perspective about the difficulties, Fi, that inspires me the most. Sometimes it all goes wrong, (sometimes all at the same time!) but that’s part of the adventure, eh?
Thank you, ever so much.

Sarah Breusch

March 6, 2010 at 3:44 pm

well I am totally biased as I don’t read any other blog! So there you go, I could read any (one) blog in the world (as that is all I have time for), and I choose yours, so there is no higher praise. The only time you make me feel inadequate is when I wonder how on earth you have the energy to write as well as the usual running the house/working/managing children issues! I have not been on for a week or so, but just went of taste.com.au after looking for an orange recipe, but not actually deciding one, when I came on and found your orange cake. So perhaps that can be dessert. Yes, we are much more naughty than you, in our house dessert is every second night. Often just icecream and sauce, but on weekends, usually something better….

so here I go to try out the orange cake, and keep it up, it is lovely conversation with people who may not respond as often as they should…..